


There Are Dangerous Friends

by Kitty Eden (TheBigCat)



Series: Tanistale [1]
Category: Tanis (Podcast), The Black Tapes Podcast, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Magic, Undertale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 22:23:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11091150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/pseuds/Kitty%20Eden
Summary: Nic Silver- Canadian cinnamon roll journalist extraordinaire- falls down a hole and nearly gets himself killed. These two facts, oddly enough, are not as closely connected as you might think.





	There Are Dangerous Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Let's take this from [the beginning.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE9tUGdLgos)

In Nic's defence, he hadn't seen the hole coming. It just kind of- well, loomed out of nowhere. Okay, yeah, sure, it _was_ a really large hole and therefore pretty easy to spot, but he had been preoccupied- mainly with talking into a microphone. The golden flowers growing around the mountainside in sprawling patterns _are_ very interesting, and he's sure that the producers at Pacific North West Stories will be fascinated with the story behind them- whatever it is.

"The patterns around here are very weird," he notes, swivelling on his heel to examine the rest of the mountain. From here- at the top of Mt Ebott- he can see for miles into the Pacific North West. He's almost high enough to be able to touch the faint wisps of clouds, hanging lazily above him. "It's almost like some sort of magic." He takes a step back. "If you squint, you can almost see some sort of message hidden in the flowers." Another step. "-I'm probably just being fanciful."

Big hole in the middle of the ground, hapless reporter wandering around with his eyes focused on the device in his hands and the scenery around him.

You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce what comes next.

Nic teeters at the edge of the hole, hands pinwheeling wildly (but still managing to keep a death grip on his recorder). For a second, he almost steadies himself, but then his foot slips out from underneath him- a casualty of a loose slab of rock.

He falls.

Into black.

[∵](https://ibin.co/3OosVeRiWs2r.jpg)

Nic wakes slowly, consciousness ebbing at him like a particularly teasing tide. His head is surrounded by golden flowers, he notes- exactly like the ones on the cliffs of Mt Ebbot. They're bobbing in a breeze that he can't quite discern, but it's coming from somewhere next to him.

He looks up, and sees rocky cliffs- steep and sloping upwards towards a faint spot of light.

A faint spot of light that he probably _fell_ from-

-oh shit.

Nic sits up abruptly, causing his pounding headache to worsen. He winces, and stares down at the flowers- soft and bouncy and they must have somehow broken his fall.

He's never appreciated nature more, honestly.

After checking in his pockets for his recorder- which is very empathetically Not There- he goes hunting around in between the flowers, and finds it smashed across the ground; fractured into tiny pieces.

"I paid thirty bucks for that," Nic whispers in horror, before realizing after a moment that his life is probably worth more than a recorder, no matter how much sentimental value it has to him. Besides, he can just buy another one as soon as he can get back up.

 _If_ he can get back up.

He gathers the pieces up, and shoves them into his pocket, hoping they won't weigh him down too much.

Then he goes looking for an exit.

He finds one almost immediately- a large archway, carved out of the dark, almost purple rock that's abundant down here. There's no source of light that way, but it looks like the only way out of the clearing, so he decides to take it.

The archway leads to a long corridor that definitely looks like it's been carved intentionally, rather than formed by some natural phenomena. Which definitely increases the chances of there being some sort of human population down here. That's promising.

The light gradually dwindles away into nothing as he continues, going from grey to darker grey to black, until he can't see anything at all, and the only sound he can hear are his own footsteps. He reaches out to feel at the walls, but somehow they've dropped away from him without him noticing.

He's blind and alone, and he doesn't know what to do.

"Hello," says a voice in the black.

Nic turns; does an entire three hundred sixty swivel, but can't make out the source of the voice, which is probably due to the overwhelming amount of darkness around him. His eyes are slowly adjusting to the lighting, but not fast enough.

"Hi?" he says cautiously, thinking, _oh good, human being_. "Is somebody there?"

"Hello," the voice repeats, and a girl steps out of the shadows.

Actually, no- on second thoughts, it's not a girl. Not entirely, anyway. Her arms have a faint tinge of green to them that he can barely make out, and her hair is bright yellow- not a natural color- and cascading over her shoulders in a messy wave. For some reason, she strikes Nic as almost flower-like. And- for some reason- Nic isn't immediately terrified of her presence. He's more curious about her, than anything.

She stares at him with bright, intelligent eyes. "You're new around here, aren't you?"

Nic freezes for a second, and then nods, slowly. "Yeah. I guess I am."

She studies him for a second, and then breaks out into a bright, beaming smile. "Awesome! I'm Tara. Tara Reynolds."

"I'm Nic," Nic says, and almost offers her a hand to shake before he realizes that he doesn't know what sort of customs strange green girls living under mountains have and this might all actually be just a hallucination caused by bumping his head on a rock on the way down.

"Hello, Nic," she says. "Did you know that this place is bigger on the inside?"

It's so strange, such a non-sequitur, that he almost laughs out loud. Sure. There's a crazy plant girl telling him the hole beneath the mountain is bigger on the inside- this day has been weird enough already, so why not?

"It is?" he asks non-committally. Tara edges out slowly into the dim light that's spilling in from the hole above them.

"Inside the cabin," she says abruptly.

"The cabin?" Nic suddenly wishes his recorder was working- as terrifying as this experience is, it sounds like exactly the sort of thing he'd want to catch on tape.

"Yes." She nods, although her eyes aren't exactly focusing on him- more like somewhere just a few inches above his head. "The air is… cool, and feels thicker or maybe just different, or maybe it’s just me, but there’s a slight metallic smell in the air." She starts suddenly, jumping like a skittish cat, and practically screams. "Sam! I think I can hear them outside, I’m gonna have to- oh!"

Nic steps forward cautiously. "Um- Tara? Are you-"

"I'm great!" she howls. "Amazing- wonderful- dangerous- magical-"

 _Holy shit,_ Nic thinks, but doesn't say it out loud because he feels like he's used up his swearing quota for the day.

Tara shoots forwards, and claw-like hands grab at Nic's shoulders, digging into his flesh. Her skin feels like dry leaves, and he could swear it's actually crunching against him.

"Nic," she whispers, face close to his so he can actually smell the sap on her breath- dear god is that disturbing- and feel the dry crackle of her hair as it shifts, "there are _dangerous things._ "

He's frozen, staring at her. He notices that there's faint traces of dark stains above her lips and trailing down her arm, and he _really doesn't want to think about what that could be_.

"There are _magical things_ ," she continues. "There are _dangerous things._ "

"I don't-"

"We get what we _deserve,_ " she says, and grins at him. Her teeth are stained red.

Nic struggles against her, attempting to twist out of her grip. It's completely ineffectual.

It figures, he reflects bitterly, that he'd be killed by a psychopathic flower girl only minutes after miraculously surviving a fifty-foot drop.

He's just about resigned himself to his fate when he hears footsteps.

∵

" _Out!_ " screams a heavily-accented voice from somewhere within the tunnel running alongside the cavern he and Tara are in, and suddenly there's another woman with long, tangly hair getting right into Tara's face- and holy shit, her hands are literally flaming with actual proper fire, is that _magic?_ "Get _out,_ you monstrous creature!"

Tara hisses- almost like a cat, really- and retreats into the shadows, and before Nic can even react or ask her _wait, what did you mean,_ she's gone- literally melting into the walls until nothing's left.

Nic realizes, quite abruptly, that at some point during the proceedings, he had fallen onto his backside and was still lying there, stunned.

"Well," says the woman, and turns reagally to face him. She has copper eyes, narrow and striking, and- most shocking of all, he can't say why he hadn't noticed before- long, curling horns, spiralling up from the tangle of her hair. "What a terrible creature, tormenting such an innocent… human…"

There's something about the way she says 'human' that doesn't really settle right with Nic, but he chooses to ignore it. "Um, thank you, I think. But… she wasn't bothering me. Really."

The woman- monster?- shakes her head, and mutters, "that's what they all think," under her breath before extending a hand towards him, which he takes. She helps him to his feet. "My name is Amalia. I am the keeper of the Ruins."

It strikes him, quite suddenly ,that she has a rather strong Russian accent for somebody who literally lives underneath the ground. He wonders where she got it from  
"I'm Nic. Nicodemus," he says, almost automatically, and curses himself for revealing his dreaded full name to a complete stranger- one with demonic horns, for god's sake. It must have been something about her nature, he thinks, that reminds him partly of his mother and partly of that girlfriend he had for an entire week in college. Something disarming.

"You fell down here," says Amalia, and it's not a question. "How?"

Nic bites his lip. "I- er, tripped."

"Tripped." Amalia's copper stare is deadpan and entirely unbelieving.

"I was preoccupied," Nic defends himself. "The flowers-"

"Yes, they are rather fascinating, aren't they?" Amalia turns towards the tunnel she emerged from, and begins to walk- trusting, perhaps, that he'll follow her. "Come with me. You cannot stay out here all day, Nicodemus."

Nic hurries after her. "Uh, it's just Nic. Please. Call me Nic."

"Hm."

The 'hm' is not encouraging.

**Author's Note:**

> Still kinda chugging along with this. Sorry my writing style's so scattered, I can't think straight and I just really hope I'm making sense


End file.
